A Matter of Survival?

June 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Dr. Wendy Chavkin offers her memories of Dr. Tiller in a New York Daily News opinion piece. Clearly, she is trying to paint her colleague, the good doctor who claimed to have performed some 60,000 abortions, as a saint. However, in her efforts to canonize the good qualities of Dr. Tiller, she actually gives us an insider’s view of the motivation of one of the leaders in the industry.

Here’s one interesting quote:

He resolved to care for the patients who turned to him for help, just as his father had. And as he did, George learned firsthand of the urgency and complexity of his patients’ predicaments, which fueled his determination to keep going. He said, “The women in my father’s practice for whom he did abortions educated me and taught me that abortion is about women’s hopes, dreams, potential, the rest of their lives. Abortion is a matter of survival (emphasis added).”

There it is in Dr. Tiller’s words: “. . . abortion is about women’s hopes, dreams, potential, the rest of their lives.” After all, an unwanted pregnancy might change a woman’s hopes, dreams and potential. In fact, it might change the rest of their lives. You think so? However, none of those things are really about survival; they are about S. E. L. F.

And the above quote puts the lie to the Pro-Choice mantra regarding women’s health. It’s overwhelmingly NOT about women’s health; it’s about S. E. L. F.

“That’s just one doctor’s opinion,” you say. According to a 2006 New England Journal of Medicine article that is very sympathetic toward abortion and abortion providers, “nationwide [in the USA] about 1 in 14 abortions is sought for health reasons.” That’s 7.142%! And that percentage is divided between the mother’s and the child’s health concerns, which includes birth defects like Spina Bifida, Down’s Syndrome, malformed limbs, etc. All of these are overwhelming challenges, no doubt, but I personally know wonderful people who live with those challenges and have productive lives.

If the NEJM statistics hold true in Dr. Tiller’s case, then he killed 55,715 babies because they might affect “women’s hopes, dreams, potential, the rest of their lives.”

Why isn’t this same logic extended to include thieves or drunk drivers or child molestors? They all affect men’s and “women’s hopes, dreams, potential, the rest of their lives.”

Folks, it’s not about women’s health, it’s about S. E. L. F. Why can’t we admit that? The answer is simple: because we don’t want to admit the level of brutality our selfishness can produce. It’s easier to face the barbaric nature of abortion if we convince ourselves it’s about health.

Filed Under: Abortion, Social Commentary, Thinkers

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